JULY 2017
Announcing Gemini ’ s New Chief Scientist John Blakeslee
As of the publication of this issue , John Blakeslee begins his duties as Gemini ’ s new Chief Scientist . John comes to Gemini from the National Research Council ’ s Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics , in Victoria , British Columbia , where he has served as an Astronomer and Senior Research Officer . Prior to that , he was a faculty member at Washington State University and a Research Scientist at Johns Hopkins University . He also held postdoctoral positions at the California Institute of Technology and Durham University in the UK . John earned his PhD from MIT in 1997 , and has worked on a variety of research topics , including galaxy structure and evolution , supermassive black holes , the extragalactic distance scale , globular cluster populations , and data analysis pipelines .
John is very familiar with Gemini , and for the past several years has worked in Canada ’ s National Gemini Office . In his capacity as Chief Scientist , John will be instrumental in setting and implementing Gemini ’ s scientific goals and directions while working closely with our international user community from the Gemini South Base Facility in La Serena , Chile . Gemini ’ s Interim Director Laura Ferrarese notes , “ The remarkable breadth of John ’ s scientific interests makes him ideally suited to lead Gemini ’ s vision into the next decade . We are all looking forward to welcoming him at Gemini and working together to further enhance the role our Observatory will play in the years to come .”
January 2018 / 2017 Year in Review
JULY 2017
F-2
Stand-down Completed
FLAMINGOS-2 was removed from the telescope on April 4th for its annual maintenance stand-down . One imminent problem affecting operations : a filter wheel failure forced us to move the stand-down forward from its original schedule . With the instrument in the lab , we took the opportunity to resolve other instrument issues ( Figure 9 ), including the outstanding problem with the On-Instrument Wavefront Sensor . During previous interventions , we inspected and improved the base mechanism ; this time we inspected the pick-off drive mechanism and replaced its motor . While the instrument was still open , we also installed several new K-band filters . As a preventive measure , and according to the maintenance scheme , several cryogenic motors were replaced as well . After nearly three weeks of hard work , we successfully pumped , cooled down , and installed the instrument back on the telescope .
2016 Weather Losses at Gemini South
The 2016 winter season started off very wet , with precipitation levels at the beginning of the year reaching the annual average total within just a couple of days , bringing with it corresponding problems , including a washed out road to Cerro Pachón , and a snowed-in dome that the day crew did a fantastic clear-
GeminiFocus
Figure 9 . Several instrument fixes were made during the annual FLAMINGOS-2 maintenance stand-down , including those shown here . Left : K-band filters installation . Center : New pick-off motor under torque testing . Right : Cryogenic motors replacement . Credits : Left and Right , Brian Chinn ; Middle , Gabriel Perez
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